Monday, October 28, 2013

Catch Up: Part 3 - CAF

On Fri (Oct 18th) I attended Surf City Cyclery's benefit for the Challenged Athletes Foundation at their Costa Mesa shop. I had not heard about the event, but Shawn (the bike guru that created my new bike) works at the Surf City HB shop and invited me to join him and Bernadette.

It was nice to meet Jason Wallen and see his new racing chair, Dawn (triathlete and big time CAF supporter) and many others.
I also had enough beer from Cismontane Brewery that I was willing to share some of my story with the group (Bernadette promised that I didn't embarrass myself).

Finished the night by closing down the corner Mexican food restaurant.

The most important thing...
I found out that I had the date for the CAF Triathlon wrong - It was in two days and not on the 27th!

So I woke up early on Sunday, picked up Mike and made the trek to La Jolla.
I know I say it all the time, but I LOVE going to this event.

Becoming an amputee SUCKS!!!
But having this community as peers is awesome and I hope I can earn my place in their ranks.

I have thought about signing up for the event, but the reality is that I don't see myself as a competitor.
I entered (and still enter) "events" vs "races".
I like like challenge much more than the competition and most of all...

If I entered the tri I'd miss the Kids Sprint and Run and that's not going to happen.
Words, pictures and video can not do this event justice.
Witnessing it let's you see humanity at it's best (paralympians and little kids with some miles on their blades helping those that are a bit wobbly on new prosthetics. Young kids running and smiling like all kids should.